Assembly of European Regions set up the AER Youth Regional Network (YRN) conceived as a common platform of youth regional organisations/councils/parliaments on regional level in Europe. This platform is a forum for discussion and exchange of experience between youngsters across all the European Regions. The idea is to bring together young people from European Regions and give them an opportunity to exchange, to share ideas, experiences, differences, hopes, fears, and problems and to find together solutions to their problems or fears. The network allows putting into practice the EU principle of subsidiarity in the field of youth policy.

In a globalise world and in a Europe more and more willing to get closer to its citizens youth issues are a subject of great importance.

It is an obvious thing to say that young people are the future. But this must be repeated because it seems to be too often forgotten that indeed, the future of a village or a town, of a Region or a country, the future of Europe or of the world itself is secured be the young people.
The participation of young people in all aspects of life is crucial precisely because young people are affected by the decisions made by governments, whether at a Regional, national or inter/trans-national level. Policy areas such as housing, environment, transport and education, to name but a few, have a direct impact on the lives of youngsters just as much as on those of the adults.

The world of today is just as much the concern of young people as the world of tomorrow. To deny the young people of today the opportunity to participate in the governance of society is to deny them the right to affect what happens around them and impact on their future destiny.

Europe is not only a continent of countries but also a continent of Regions. In all aspects of life certain issues are better solved at different levels of government (local, Regional, national or European). It is therefore crucial to allow young people to involve in the management of these issues at all levels.

There are various youth councils/organisations/parliaments/associations at national or European level, but less on Regional level. The degree of organisation and the presence of such youth organisations depend of course on the specific national conditions and traditions of political participation and civic culture. The Regional participatory democracy is obviously more developed in countries with an advanced civic and political culture of the population and where Regions have a strong degree of autonomy. This trend is less visible in more centralized countries (but there are of course exceptions, in the Scandinavian countries) with a more diminished democratic experience (especially the ex-communist countries).

However, some practical aspects of day-to-day life might concern the Regional level more then other tiers of government (for instance: environment, secondary schools, youth unemployment in the Regions, social inclusion, gender imbalances: according to the competencies of the Regions in each country). This might be of the young people’s concern as well, reason for which they should be given the opportunity to have a say on the issues they consider important. Moreover, allowing them to meet young people from other European Regions might help them to better identify their common concerns and problems, to contextualise their specific problems and eventually, to inspire them to find appropriate solutions for these problems.

Because it fully understands the stakes of this policy in the long run, the AER is committed to pay more attention to youth issues.

The AER project ‘AER Regional Youth Network’ (YRN) creates a new opportunity for young people to have a say on issues of their concern at regional level. Even if different sub-regional groupings of youth organisations in Europe exist, the AER initiative is singular because of its wide area of coverage at pan-European level. With member Regions from almost all the countries of Europe (not only EU member states) and due to the gained experience, the motivation and the know-how of its team, the AER potential to foster such a project is real and convincing. In fact, the AER has important experiences in developing projects and organising events to develop the Regional dimension of this particular policy.